The Financial Times reports that care home residents who pay their own fees are subsidising local-authority funded residents by more than £100 a week, according to figures taken from the latest research conducted by LaingBuisson.

Speaking to Gill Plimmer, William Laing said that self-finding residents are being charged an additional £8,000 a year – a charge he dubbed a ‘care tax’.

Mr Laing said: “The entire care home sector for older people is being kept afloat through cross-subsidies from . . . residents that pay privately.”